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MARC Seeks Greater Collaboration Under Tromp

MARC USA/Pittsburgh, which has been without an account management chief for three years, expects big-shop veteran Kevin Tromp to unify a team that has grown somewhat disparate as it filled with outsiders during the past few years of rapid agency growth.

Agency CEO Michele Fabrizi, who last held the job before being promoted to president and COO in 1998, said she expects Tromp to focus on building staff collaboration. “I want him to bring it back to the MARC way,” she said, referring to the agency’s embrace of “re-engineering” and account teams.

Tromp, 46, comes to MARC as senior vice president and director of account management following a brief stint as chief marketing officer at a San Jose, Calif.-based education concern. Previously, he was for four months COO and director of account management at FCB Direct in Chicago, and spent four years here with Young & Rubicam on the United Airlines business. He spent much of his career in his native South Africa with Leo Burnett.

MARC’s private ownership, which makes the agency “still absolutely focused on the clients,” attracted Tromp, he said. “I haven’t seen that at the bigger organizations I’ve worked with in a long time.”

Among his goals at MARC is to upgrade the agency’s “knowledge resources” and develop proprietary branding tools. “Large agencies have access to great amounts of information,” he said. “We’re building that.”

The addition of Tromp completes MARC’s top executive lineup. Karen Kilp recently took over as head of account planning; David Ewen joined MARC as executive creative director earlier this year; and new business is headed by George Garber.